Over the years, I’ve met lots of Protestant missionaries who have had experience casting out demons. In many of the overseas countries, demon possession is more common than it is in the U.S., and missionaries are often called upon to try to help someone who is demon-possessed.
And think about it–if a person asks Jesus to help them get rid of a demon, thereby expressing belief in the power of Jesus, do you think Jesus would say no to the possessed person just because there is no Catholic priest around? He can work through any believer.
I can assure you that Protestants take this very, very seriously, and it is not done glibly or flippantly. There is no assumption that all we have to do is “name it and claim it.” Jesus Himself said that some demons do not leave easily and must be dealt with with prayer and fasting. If Jesus said this, who are we to think that demons will flee just because we say a little prayer?
Not just anyone is involved in the casting out of demons. Usually the children and young people are kept away (physically removed and kept a good distance away) from the situation, and anyone else who has any doubts or fears. Only mature believers with a clear conscience and no known besetting sins or unconfessed sins are involved.
These believers prepare for many hours, praying and FASTING, and all of the Christians that they know are called upon to pray and FAST also. I’ve heard missionaries say that they fasted and prayed non-stop for 3 days (taking some time to sleep) before even attempting to confront the demon(s).
When it comes time to confront the demon(s), the believers call upon JESUS to cast out the demon(s)–they don’t claim any power over that demon(s).
And always, all the glory is given to Jesus, not humans.
After the demon is gone, the believers encourage the cleansed person to believe in Jesus, because if they don’t believe, then the demon will return and bring back more demons.
My pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church had many interesting stories about his years of missionary work in Viet Nam (from 1957 through 1972, until the fall of Saigon). Once during the night, his son, just a little boy at the time, came to him and said, “Daddy, wake up. There’s a demon in my bedroom. Come and make it go away.”
So the pastor went to the boy’s bedroom, and in the Name of Jesus, commanded the demon to depart. The demon did so, and the little boy went back to bed.
Nothing was said about this between father and son for years. But one day, it came to the pastor’s mind, and he asked his son, “How did you know that there was a demon in your bedroom?”
The young man answered, “Because my bedroom was freezing. And that doesn’t happen in Viet Nam!”
I found this story interesting because it matched an experience that I and my husband had with demons. We were involved in a lot of pro-life work in our city when our daughters were babies, and I often had articles published in the local newspaper. One night, very late, close to eleven o-clock at night, our phone rang, and when my husband answered, it was a pastor from a liberal-leaning church in our city.
The pastor raved at my husband about our pro-life work. I could hear him screaming over the phone (this was before the days of speaker phones). His language was filthy, and he called me and my husband terrible names and had the most awful things to say about our pro-life efforts and my articles.
From the moment my husband picked up the phone, I started shivering. I was so freezing cold that I couldn’t get warm, and my teeth were chattering. My husband was cold, too, as he tried to get a word in edgewise.
It literally felt like evil had slithered into our house.
My first thought was for my babies sleeping in the bedroom at the other end of the house. I ran down through the house and down the hall. I was so cold–the house felt like it was snowing, it was so cold.
When I reached my daughter’s bedrooms (they were in separate rooms at that point), I stopped in front of the doors. In front of each door–I swear this is true–I felt a column of warm air. On the hallway side of the door, it was freezing cold. But I could hold out my hands and feel the warmth in front of their doors–both doors.
I was awestruck, knowing that God had sent angels to protect my innocent children from the pro-abortion demon that was stalking our house.
I stood in front of my daughters’ bedrooms praying until my husband came down the hall. He had finally managed to get the pastor to hang up. My husband experienced the same thing I experienced–he could feel the warm columns of air in front of the girls’ bedrooms.
But by now, the house was warming up again–it was obvious that the demon had departed our house, thank the Lord.
That is my sole experience with demons. It seems strange that they would be cold–we always think of little red guys with pitchforks and hellfire in the background.
